Matthew 20:1-16 - March 5, 2023
This is one of those things we don’t like about Jesus.
The parable of the workers in the vineyard is one of those stories that gets our “fairness radar” up and beeping. People who work a full day shouldn’t be paid the same amount as those who work for an hour. It doesn’t sit right. They don’t deserve it. We can spout off lots of reasons why, but before we go down that path, a few things to keep in mind.
First, this is a parable, not business advice. No one asks, “hey, Jesus, how should I run my vineyard?” No. Jesus is telling us here, “God’s kingdom is like…” This is meant to give us a sense of how God acts in God’s Kingdom. It’s not a “go and do likewise” story.
Second, we often say the landowner is generous - too generous, stupidly generous. He goes a little too far here. And in some ways, OK, I get that; but he’s only paying a single day’s wage to everyone. To say it another way: after one day, all these workers are back at nothing. Each worker rolled out of bed that day with nothing - no job, no wage, no livelihood. The owner gave each and every worker simply enough for the day.
If we take those two points, it maybe softens our dislike of what Jesus is saying, but the underlying point is still there. The owner gave the same thing to everyone, no matter what time they were invited to come work.
So, what exactly is the lesson we should learn? What should we glean?
Well, the point is about grace and an undeserving gift. It’s about what Jesus brings to the world and how he transforms it. It’s about being unfair, but only unfair because of comparison. Only unfair because we look to see what the other has. Only unfair because we are so conditioned to judge ourselves based on other people. How are we supposed to know where we stand unless we line ourselves up based on some criteria?
The first workers got exactly what they agreed to; they weren’t cheated on the deal. They received enough for the day. The owner provided enough. The later workers had no agreement, just that they would be paid “whatever is right.” The last to be invited to work weren’t told anything about payment. The bad news and jealousy only come when we compare ourselves to others.
This parable tells us that God is indeed generous, but maybe not in how we initially think. In the parable, all the workers owed their livelihood for that day to the landowner who sought them out - who keep going out repeatedly to invite them, to offer them a place, to give them life and a purpose.
Translate that into God language and we see that God’s persistent invitation is what is generous, not the payment. God gives us enough for today and keeps inviting us for another day, and another, and another. Without God, we would have nothing - nothing at all. God has given us our life and our purpose, and God sustains us - not as something that we have earned, but as something that God keeps doing for us.
It all comes from God. Our thoughts, the personality traits we have, the involuntary beating of our hearts, the air around us - all of it is a gift from God. The workers are dependent on the landowner for their daily bread; by the same token, we are dependent on God for each and every day, too.
When we forget that all we have is a gift, we so easily become resentful of God’s generosity to others. We so easily get trapped by our own counting and assessing and evaluating that we altogether miss God’s generosity. It’s the comparison trap we often fall into.
When we compare, we start to respond like those first hired - “Hey!”
But when we remember that even this is a gift - this day, this wage, this breath, this life… then we respond with thanks, praise, service, and sharing.
God calls us to work in the vineyard, and God keeps inviting more people to work with us. See, God is up to something here at St. Philip. Our Forward Together capital campaign is kind of our acknowledgment, our “yes, God, you are at work and more people need this welcome, this worship, this good news.”
We have plans and ideas and visions and dreams, and it is going to take us all to accomplish them. It’s an opportunity for us all to participate in what God is doing here, using what God has given us - our energy, our prayers, our money, our time, our hopes - to work toward what God wants to do through us here at St. Philip.
And as we look at the totals, it can be overwhelming - but only if we look at it as if we ourselves have to do it. We each are called to be generous with what God has given to us - to us! - without comparing to another. God sufficiently provides enough, and calls us to generosity, too.
As we each work in God’s vineyard, as we each generously give from what God gives, as we each live into the persistent abundance God provides, we as a church won’t just survive but thrive. Dreams will be realized. Grace will be bestowed. Lives will be filled with welcome and love and grace - for those of us here, and those who aren’t here yet.
God is persistently generous in all things. God loves us, loves you, enough to give you today.
Which leads us to something more. God’s grace is about more than what we have and see here. We learn that the kingdom of heaven is like… like a God who doesn’t give us what we deserve. God, it turns out, is not fair when it comes to the kingdom of heaven. God doesn’t play by our rules. God does not give us what we deserve.
And thank God for that. Because if each of us got exactly what we deserved, where would we be? We can only work for, live out, be the kingdom if God comes to us as we sit idly by. We don’t deserve entrance, but God lavishes grace, mercy, and salvation on all of us, no matter our circumstances or situations. At the end of the parabolic day, we’ll all be gifted with grace.
It is an undeserving gift. But that is what Jesus brings to the world. That is how Jesus transforms it. Not with some mediocre, down-the-middle kind of way, but through a radical love - a love that when we see it, we wonder if God doesn’t go a little too far sometimes.
But that is the nature of God. To give grace. To give us life, both physical and spiritual. To transform our world. To welcome us and all people. To blow out of the water our notion of what is fair. All to give us exactly what we don’t deserve.